Stupid and dangerous, please learn from this,,,

[Druncan]

I am normally very careful and cautious with hot fluids, electricity and acid/caustic solutions. But sometimes complacency clouds your common sense. Two days ago I was caustic cleaning a new beer tap font system I had installed. I was using the usual Caustic Soda initial clean using a redundant Ecokeg inner ball as my pressured caustic reservoir as I connected and disconnected different fonts. I had not put jubilee clips on the ball out Sankey S connector and as I checked fluid flow the connector came off spraying CS directly onto my right eyeball. I luckily immediately stuck my head under the bar sink tap and flushed with water. But the damage was done. The caustic soda had dissolved the outer layer of my eye and subsequently caused unbelievable pain.

Two days late my sight has unbelievably recovered fully. It has been painful and I have been so fooking lucky. Island optician and docs were fantastic.

I wear goggles now when using all chemicals. My head has been soundly slapped. luckily I can still see. Learn from my stupidity please,,,,

 

[IainM]

Wow. Glad no permanent damage was done.

 

[Thumper]

Jesus, glad you're ok. CS is nasty stuff.

 

[Fil]

Very glad to read your eyes have recovered.

 

[Clint]

Glad you're OK! I work in a chemical processing plant where visors,goggles etc have to be worn....when I attempt the diy at home a subconsciously look for the glasses...that's your first and last chance!
Great heads up!

 

[Saisonator]

Eye injury is bloody painful and pain killers don’t touch it.

 

[Druncan]

All thanks, simple mistake with potentially disastrous consequences,,, Please no one follow my example.
I'm learning,,,

 

[dad_of_jon]

I am normally very careful and cautious with hot fluids, electricity and acid/caustic solutions. But sometimes complacency clouds your common sense. Two days ago I was caustic cleaning a new beer tap font system I had installed. I was using the usual Caustic Soda initial clean using a redundant Ecokeg inner ball as my pressured caustic reservoir as I connected and disconnected different fonts. I had not put jubilee clips on the ball out Sankey S connector and as I checked fluid flow the connector came off spraying CS directly onto my right eyeball. I luckily immediately stuck my head under the bar sink tap and flushed with water. But the damage was done. The caustic soda had dissolved the outer layer of my eye and subsequently caused unbelievable pain.

Two days late my sight has unbelievably recovered fully. It has been painful and I have been so fooking lucky. Island optician and docs were fantastic.

I wear goggles now when using all chemicals. My head has been soundly slapped. luckily I can still see. Learn from my stupidity please,,,,

phew! so glad you've recovered, that sounds like a d-i-y cataract op from hell.

 

[ElvisIsBeer]

Glad you're ok. I was once clearing a blocked drain with CS.....had my arm down the drain, in a thick rubber glove. Felt the blockage, just out of reach unless I went below the rim of the glove. I'd tipped stacks of water in, so I took a chance.

Immediate burns to arm. Fascinating to see the skin just starting to dissolve in front of me. I had scars for a couple of years.

I know we always say "treat with respect" - but I'm just not having stuff like that in the house anymore. I can't be trusted.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Glad everything turned out OK, but I would be ditching the CS and using something less "dangerous" instead.

 

[Druncan]

Cheers all, Recovered. Yer eye is the fastest healing part of your body from my optician neighbour. I am so relieved. I can see, and learned a valuable painful lesson.
I cannot see(???) any other option on sansitisation for brewing.
Rough clean, Caustic wash then Paracetic acid, + Nitric acid for beerstone.

The only safe system with this is full PPE and documentation for us.

Be careful out there brothers and sisters! But I'm still brewing,,,

 

[Smileyr8]

Just a thought here, do you really need to use caustic soda, is it possible to use something less dangerous?

Above all you are OK.

 

[terrym]

@Druncan
I'm pleased to hear you have recovered, also that you have passed on a caution to others doing similar work. :thumb:Handling many chemicals as @Clint knows through his job and now yourself can, under the right conditions, even be life threatening if not treated with respect. Nowadays DIY stores like Screwfix carry a good range of PPE and its always good investment for when you are doing hazardous work of any sort to have the right gear to hand, so that you don't have an excuse for not using it because you are in the middle of a job and don't want to interrupt it to fetch a pair of goggles or earplugs. That said how many tradesmen do you see with power tools like angle grinders working without eye protection, a mask, or ear defenders, or lifting heavy bulky loads wearing a pair of trainers. And if you are working high up on a ladder with heavy tools, with someone standing on the bottom to stabilise it as I like to have, do you insist they wear a hard hat?

 

[MyQul]

Glad to hear you're ok Druncan. :thumb:

 

[Ken L]

Glad there was no permanent damage.
After two lots of eye surgery following an injury that tore up my retina and a damaged the muscles behind my right eye requiring fairly extensive repair and a viterectomy, I now use safety glasses for brewing, DIY, gardening and cycling.

As for the "cataract op from hell" mentioned above, how about a power cut half way through the operation and having the aesthetic wear off while tools are inside your eyeball?
It takes self control to not move and wait until the tools come out to tell them that you can feel everything.

 

[BeerCat]

Good advive and thanks for the warning mate. I am glad you have recovered and if i start to use the stuff will definitely invest in some decent goggles.

 

[simon12]

When I had a 1BBL brewery the guy I owned it with managed to turn on a cask cleaner without a cask on the spray ball and only his glasses stopped it going directly into both eyes, we had already decided to stop using it and replaced it with enzybrew for the brew vessels and caskclean for the casks and fermenters both from Murphy & Sons but you can't get in in small quantities.

 

[Ali]

Glad you're OK. Glad I have invested in steel toe caps, safety glasses and brewing gloves. Although you can never be totally safe, anything you can do to tip the scales in your favour has got to be a good thing. As has been mentioned already, there is a good supply of reasonably priced products available, so absolutely no excuses for not buying/using.
To illustrtate the point, last week, just before I started cleaning a load of bottles, I popped on my safety gear; so glad I did as a load of cleaner bubbled out of the bottle and would have gone into my eyes, but for the safety glasses. Lesson learned, fortunately without any pain!

 

[dad_of_jon]

Glad there was no permanent damage.
After two lots of eye surgery following an injury that tore up my retina and a damaged the muscles behind my right eye requiring fairly extensive repair and a viterectomy, I now use safety glasses for brewing, DIY, gardening and cycling.

As for the "cataract op from hell" mentioned above, how about a power cut half way through the operation and having the aesthetic wear off while tools are inside your eyeball?
It takes self control to not move and wait until the tools come out to tell them that you can feel everything.

Ken that's one of my worst fears, aesthetic wearing off during an op, there should be emergency backup power supplies to OT's, someone should be sacked for that happening.

 

[Ken L]

Ken that's one of my worst fears, aesthetic wearing off during an op, there should be emergency backup power supplies to OT's, someone should be sacked for that happening.

It wasn't much fun....